islands? in the south china sea we don't want that to happen on the moon well, nasa administrator bill nelson, thank you for being with us. >> we will all be watching this launch tonight. it should be an exciting moment, a new our have seen a new central starts right now right now, donald trump is on his way to another day in court and the big question he does not know the answer to right now. who's going to take the stand next? and blasts and smoke and rafah, the israeli military telling billions to evacuate immediately as ceasefire talks have stalled in the biden administration saying that is all on hamas and a tragedy is playing out in texas horrible flooding that we're watching and news that a little boy is now dead after being swept away from his parents, who were trying to get to safety there is more threat

threatening weather coming today. i'm kate baldwin with john berman and sara sidner. this the cnn news central donald trump just slept trump tower for court as his criminal hush money trial resumes in less than 30 minutes. >> the big question today, who will take the stand? among the most notable witnesses who may be called his former fixer and attorney michael cohen, adult film star stormy daniels, and former playboy playmate, karen mcdougal on friday today hope hicks, who was one of trump's closest and most trusted former aides, took the stand. >> she had dramatic testimony briefly coming to a stop at one point when she began to cry during cross-examination over the weekend, trump hosted donors and potential vice presidential picks at the republican national committee's spring retreat. >> he also he ramped up his attacks several attendees telling cnn he accused democrats of running a gestapo

administration. cnn's beringia and grasses outside court and kristen holmes is in washington. brynn, we're going to begin with you. do we now know or is there any clue as to who the next witness? might be no, unfortunately, not sarah. >> but what you will know in 30 minutes don't court gets started as you just said, the former president making his way down here to lower manhattan for what will be the fourth week of this trial. >> and like you said, there's some big witnesses left on the prosecution's roster, michael cohen and stormy daniels, karen mcdougal, unclear who will be called next, but what is clear is that we are getting closer and closer xu the prosecution making its case about whether or not trump knew about these hush money payments prior to the 2016 election. and did it to influence that election. and that's what we saw a little bit of help from hope hicks when she took the stand, the former president's former spokesperson, who really played it out for the prosecution that

trump had an idea about that hush money payment. they got her to acknowledge that in 2018 when a wall street journal article came out about that, that trump told her for that it was better that article was coming out then then before the 2020 election signaling that he did have some idea about this. she kinda also talked about michael cohen and how michael cohen made that payment and she knew that and she doesn't believe he would have done that out of the kindness of his own heart. does how she said it on the stand saying, i didn't know michael to be an especially charitable person or selfless person. >> and then when it was time for a cross-examination, as you stay he did sarah sheet got a bit emotional before the questioning even got started. >> she had take a break from the witness box before they could resume. and in that questioning, she acknowledged for the defense that trump was the family man. she said that he never really wanted to embarrass his family with this campaign that he valued melania trump's opinion kinda painting a picture of this former president who may took action

that not because of an election, but rather for the sake of his family. and she also took some jabs at michael cohen, who again will be one of the prosecution's star witnesses. so we will see how this core is going to play out today and into this week, this is really the first time in a little while that we've had a full week of testimony in this trial. so it's gonna be an eventful week. again, a lot of people still waiting to be called to the witness box. there okay. >> we understand then the donald trump has arrived there. the motorcade arriving at court. court starts in linux 20 or so minutes. thank you so much. brian let's go down to kristen holmes. are gonna go from the court to the campaign. you've been able to obtain some audio recording from the speech that he made. what can you tell us that was said in there as he's also looking at his potential vice presidents yes sir. that's right. i mean, to say that this was profanity laced is really an understatement at one point, you could tell he was growing angry talking about his legal issues. he called jack smith and f-ing a whole in this 90 minutes long rant.

>> but as you said, it wasn't all just about his legal issues. >> now, one thing he did say that i do want to point out before we move on to our speculation about vice president is he did say that demo, democrats are running a gestapo administration. this is something he has said before. this is something he is due to rile up donors, to rile up his base. they think that this helps him, but let's move on to the fund stuff right now because he's going to be in court all day. we'll talk about those potential vice presidential picks. he called many of them up on the stage. i think we have a list of some of those potential vp contenders that he called up, marco rubio, tim scott, senator jd vance, governor doug burgum, representative elise stefanik, representative byron donalds, really complementing all of them for different specific aspects. one, marco rubio, he actually said your names coming up a lot for vice president, at least a phonic. he said that after she had helped bring down or whatever her aggression didn't towards the harvard president led to her resignation. she said, he said

that people were mentioning her for vice president, but again, this is all really just reading tea leaves and speculation at this point. marco rubio said over the weekend, i think this is be true if you asked any of these candidates, they believe that the end of the day donald trump is the one who makes this decision. and also, when you're talking about who he call to the stage and whether or not we should be reading into this one person he calls it the stage. it was former democratic governor of illinois rod blagojevich, who of course, had been in prison for several years until donald trump pardoned him. now, he has a big trump fan, so again, can't read too much into who he brought into stage, but we still don't have a vice president, presidential candidate. we're told it's going to come before the convention. so we should be reading as many hints are looking for as many hints as we possibly can very interesting kristen holmes. thank you so much for that reporting and also to our beringia and grass court is going to resume in just a few short minutes here. john wright, a huge blast this

morning, rocks parts of eastern raffa after israel warn civilians he used to get out. now, we have breaking whether news just a minute ago, the highest level warning for severe weather for a huge swaths for the country. we will tell you the areas that need to take cover and then stormy daniel's karen mcdougal, michael cohen, who will take the stand this hour at the criminal trial of donald let's try this again. what do you see? >> my first championship in houston second championship. charles not winning a championship. getty was trying to stay positive or positive. he didn't win a ring oh, my god work play link relief work play, blinking really only three and one extended release formula for dry eyes blink

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get used to some breaking news right now, just into with columbia university announcing, it has canceled the university-wide commencement ceremony plan for next week. >> instead, the university official says there will be smaller events and that security concerns are one of the main reasons for the decision citing how difficult the past few weeks have been due to intense protests on campus, columbia said it plans to share details and a coming days about a festive event on may 15th that would allow graduates to come together to celebrate just a reminder that most of the students graduating from college this year did not get to walk for their high school graduations due to covid john. all right. we have some breaking news. we're just getting or the president biden will be speaking to israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu later today, this comes as the idf has been dropping leaflets around raffa in gaza, warning people in one sector to evacuated a ground invasion. there could be

imminent ceasefire and hostage negotiator patients appear to be at an impasse. let's get right to cnn's jeremy diamond live in jerusalem with the latest on what will be yet one more means of communication between these two liters here? >> yeah, no doubt about it coming at a very critical moment, john, not only with those ceasefire negotiations stalled, but also as a result, the israeli military ordering thousands, tens of thousands of people in eastern raffa to begin to evacuate. that part of the city this morning, uh, before 9:00 a.m. thousands of leaflets were dropped on eastern raffa, directing people to flee north to an area called al-muwasi, which has been a designated humanitarian zone, one that has been expanded. the israeli military says in recent weeks with additional shelters, water, food being brought in, as well as field hospitals. but 100,000 those in people currently live in that part of eastern rafat that is being evacuated and there are major questions at this stage about whether or not that

humanitarian zone has sufficient shelter, food, and medicine for the number of individuals who are being directed to go. their concerns being raised by humanitarian aid official those about the adequacy of that area, but also concerns that wide-scale panic could be spreading in rafah with people outside of that immediate eastern rafah evacuation zone also beginning to head north. we've already started to see people who did not receive those leaflets beginning to flee north out of concern for what may come next. there's no question that there is major fear and anxiety in rafah at the moment as the israeli military says that it is carrying out a limited scale operation, but one that make no question is certainly setting the stage for israeli tanks and troops to begin going into rafah. how quickly that could happen? it is still an open question whether it is a matter of hours, days, or weeks. the israeli military simply will not say at this stage, but there's no question that it is all happening because of the

state of those ceasefire negotiations. there had been considerable optimism this weekend that perhaps egypt, egyptian framework, hamas and israel could perhaps agreed to it. but now two israeli sources telling me that these talks are at a standstill over hamas is demand to end the war altogether as part of these talks, something that the israeli prime minister has said, he's simply will not agree to john. all right. jeremy diamond in jerusalem. jeremy, thank you very much. >> we also have this breaking news coming in. severe storm outlook for today has increased to its highest level for parts of central oklahoma and kansas is really a huge area of the threat of is also a multiple and intense tornadoes. this is happening as texas rivers remain at fledged stage levels, that heavy rain over the weekend, they're displaced thousands of people, enforced hundreds to call for rescue and also learning about a four-year-old boy who died in the floodwaters. cnn's rosa flores is in harris county, texas for us and seen as derek van dam is in the weather center. derek, can you talk us

through first? talk us through this new threat yeah, this threat we always knew it was going to be a big day today, but just know within the past 15 minutes to storm prediction center has increased this risk. >> it's identified the parameters, the location that they're most concerned about. and anywhere you see this color coding here, this is the severe your weather threat, but we're really going to focus in on central and southern kansas through oklahoma to put this into context. this is a level five of five. the highest risk of severe weather threat that the storm prediction center does issue. and it has been five years since oklahoma has been included within this. it's been seven years since kansas has been included in this. the last time a high level of risk was issued was over a year ago. so this is really saying something. i don't want to mince words today, but this is one of those days you want to have a safe place or a tornado shelter, perhaps underground have helmet available if you live along this i35 corridor, perhaps i 40

is well right through oklahoma city. this is really ground zero four wording from the storm prediction center, intense, long track tornados, very large, two giant sized hail. that means the potential for baseball, softball-sized hail falling from in the sky and damaging winds in excess of 80 miles per hour. the time-frame two to 5:00 p.m. this evening, but nocturnal tornadoes are still possible. that means tornadoes after sunset there twice it's dangerous and twice as lethal okay. all right. derrick, thank you so much for tracking that for us. now, let's bring and rosa flores, as i mentioned, rosa urine, texas. texas was hard hit this week again, what are you seeing and hearing there this morning well, kate, i wanted to start with the death of that four-year-old boy, closer to dallas the mother of that child, speaking to nbc dfw, sharing that the boy's name is lucas warn. >> his four years old and this mom describe the conditions in essence, they were driving through a storm that we're

headed back home. and they were driving through a road that normally floods, but this mom says that there was no barricades so they kept on driving, but then their battery died from their vehicle. water started going into their vehicle and this couple decided to get out of the vehicle with their son to try to get to the safety, then the mom told nbc dfw the following quote, and the current came up really high and just let go and i didn't you're anything fromom him? i think he just went under an hour. she went on to tell nbc dfw that rescuers arrived soon thereafter but of course it was too late. they recovered the body of this little boy hours later and kate, that tragedy happened near dallas. i'm in harris county, which she is near houston, and it's the same storm system. it just gives you an idea of the magnitude of the storm and how people across this state eight, are dealing with that flooding. we hopped on an air boat with

the harris county sheriff's office yesterday and take a look at this video. look at the water levels, and you can see that are stop signs were at eye level while we were on this air boat and first responders talk to us about some of the challenges they face when they tried to rescue people people, and convince them to go to higher ground. take a listen cells that they were primarily have is just the elements rep. to the warrant because you don't know what's in the water what is an score? >> the snakes were this width, what his spiders is gonna be the biggest challenge, but we do our best to get out the boat, me, get them into the both the best possible you can i'm just to give you an idea of how quickly water recedes. you saw that video. we were on that air boat with those first responders. we were in this area so we're on standing right now. there was no water compared to that yesterday and that was just less than 24 hours ago. you can see there's just some ponding in the background back to you coming in so fast and leaving just as

fast as good to see rosa. thank you so much for being that recording, sarah. >> all right. >> we're going to live pictures now inside the new york city courthouse were testimony he will continue against donald trump were in that hush money trial. we are waiting to find out who the next witness might be. some of the main players in the alleged scheme have yet to testify, stay with us as a cnn special live coverage the jinx came out. i thought, oh, my god when bob has a friend, he expects blind loyalty surprises, and certified looks like allergy season is back down to start saving on your prescriptions. another good reason to check, good rx we put our heart into celebrating moms

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all right. >> you're looking at live pictures just there outside the new york city courthouse where donald trump's criminal hush money trial. will resume in just a few minutes here with us now, legal analyst and criminal defense attorney joey jackson and cnn legal analyst and former federal prosecutor jennifer rodgers. thank you both for being here. we do not know who the next witness has. everybody is waiting, nor does the defense. but i want to ask you about hope hicks, how damaging was her testimony with the things that she said, even though there wasn't olive branch as well yeah. >> it was good for them the prosecution, i mean, she did a few things that were helpful. she gave us an inside the campaign perspective of access hollywood and the aftermath of all of that. and what panic mode they were all in she gave us a sense of the shifting timeline of trump's story right at first, they absolute denial know a fair no pay off than it was okay. we'll know a fair. but there was a payoff and then they said, well, there was a payoff by michael cohen, but trump didn't know anything about it and then they said, well, do you think that makes sense knowing michael cohen is you do. and she's like, yeah, no, not so much. so they really

got to the both the election conspiracy piece of it and started to get to the who was in the know with the reimbursement piece of it. they did not get with her the fraudulent financial documents part of the case, which is where they're going to need to turn next at some point, they will need to get there for sure. also at some point, we expect joey some of these what could be blockbuster witnesses, at least in terms of the frenzy it may cause stormy daniel's caramel dual stormy daniels. >> what is she provide to the case and what's the risk there for the prosecution? >> i get that it's sensational, but do they need it legally? >> so a couple of things let's remind everyone that the reason we don't know the next witnesses is because the prosecution does not trust the release of the information because donald trump may tweet about them. >> and a normal set of circumstances, right? >> prosecutors really cooperate with the defense and they tell you who they're going to call. so the reason we're having the guest conversation is because of the gag order and the the ability. right of the president to follow it to the specifics

of your question. i think stormy daniels ishi and essential witness. i don't think so. now, having said that, i think not bringing her would be the glaring discrepancies. she's been talked about so much. you don't bring stormy daniel's. why not? right now? she just knows that she had of course, the story, of course backing up the affair. that's the number one, right? not critical here. only critical and as much as she was going to oust him as it related to the affair. she knows, of course, to $130,000 payment. she knows who she dealt with thank she lays some very firm foundations. will she barry ultimately the president? no. because you have to believe at the end of the day that there's this connection between trump and the payout. and of course, the defense is trying very hard to say this is michael cohen's in ghana. ghana mock his role. he's out there doing it for his boss out of fealty but i think she gives you a piece that's very important. i think the jury wants to hear from her and for symmetrical purposes, i think it's important the way and she basically said when speaking,

when it comes to michael cohen, she did not know him to be a charitable person or do anything. not a selfless show a person. >> and that speaks to the point that joke it was talking about, but it also it's another witness who no one is at anything complimentary to say about michael cohen who has taken the stand and speaking about that, that that adds up to what eventually when michael cohen takes stand, listen, prosecutors are used to dealing with unsavory witnesses, right? >> you do it all the time. you're cooperators to say, look, then there, there are murderer or they're rape they're or whatever there are fraudster. you don't have to like them, but let us tell you why you should believe them. that's why they're setting up all these witness who are corroborating michael cohen in advance. so that way and he gets on the stand and says, i did. this. jury says, oh, yeah, we already heard about that from some other people, so prosecutors i think are not concerned about the dislike ability if you will, of michael cohen. they just have to deal with with it. and michael cohen, obviously he's going to have to deal with it on the stand. >> i've got a two-part question for you. joey, who has been the most consequential

witness that we have seen on the stand so far. and is michael cohen the most constant? sequential witness of all? >> wow, that's great. well, i would say this. i think he is consequential, but to jen, very good point. i think the prosecution trying to make him not so consequential. why? because of all the witnesses that are proceeding him that lay the foundation with respect to what he's going to testify to. and you're going to hear in closing arguments. yeah. you savage michael cohen. you could talk about him lying before congress. you can talk about him being a convicted felon. you could talk about whatever you want. but what you can't talk about is the fact that we've had a number of witness corroborate what he's going to say. who are they we're going to start off with mr. pecker. how about him? to lay the foundation for the catch and kill? he spoke to you about the case, the nature of the case, why they were doing this, the influence of the election. and let's pivot now that we've gotten to pecker to this davidson characters the why don't you talk to prosecutor i feel that some an answer to the

question, right? >> what happens is is that they elephant as relevant as he is, right? i think that by all these witnesses speaking to the issues hill, speak about really build him up, and that's gonna be the deal. >> interesting. >> any sorry, 34 counts all about a document of one kind or another. you think this is the week that we will see these dots? documents that are being used to charge these crimes. >> we have to we have to i thought they were coming last week, but there are definitely coming this week. these are the charges they have to get these documents into evidence and start part explaining to the jury why they were fraudulent first, but more importantly, why trump is responsive to that before after cohen, do you get the documents in before four? i think they got to do it today. >> all right. jennifer, yes. soon as joey jackson, we confirmation on that. >> all right. thank you all for joining us. this has been cnn news central are special live coverage of the trial of donald trump begins right